Church's health fair draws big crowd

Published 7:00 pm, Saturday, August 20, 2005

We understand that people don't always understand the value of their resources; our intent is to bring those resources to the community," said Pastor Dexter Upshaw Sr.

Despite the unusual setting, he explains that at a church, people might not feel as intimidated by health jargon.

"We are not here to give advice," he cautions, "but hopefully they will see the material and that will lead them to discuss things with their doctors."

The health fair has already proven effective in this respect said Upshaw after a previous fair resulted in raising concerns about the risk of prostate cancer among the male members of the church. A doctor was invited to come in to make presentations and educate all those who were interested. The information resulted in a member finding out that he in fact had cancer and was able to seek treatment.

"This year we decided to look at living wills and identity theft because they are both very current," said Upshaw.

The fair featured workshops on reducing the risk of identity theft from the Conroe Police Department and on the basics of drafting a living will with Verlis Adams, a paralegal and realt estate agent, among other things, who has taken a special initiative to educate members of the community about the often neglected process of making a will.

During the living will information sessions, Verlis presented participants with packets of information outlining the living will process and the power of attorney.

In general, she said, most people in Montgomery County haven't been exposed to the information they need, or haven't acted on it to secure their future.

Her feelings seemed to be confirmed as the sessions, which were scheduled for half an hour, stretched to more than twice that with questions from the audience.

"If you've ever gone through a death in the family, you realize there is so much paperwork to go through," she said to the assembled members. "It helps to get it straight before hand."

Verlis began consulting on living wills after a death in her own family, spreading the word she said has become a priority for her.

"The resources are available: legal aid, hospitals, senior citizen programs, and all the forms are simple," she said. The only thing she feels inhibits people is a little direction.

Florence Jackson, a 54 year member of the Rising Star Baptist Church, was very pleased with all of the material she was able to collect. Jackson attended Verlis' information session and said that what she took away made her think and that even though she had been exposed to some of it before, no one had gone into as much detail. She said that the intimate setting enabled audience members to feel comfortable enough to relate their individual experiences with the topics.